Ashland University student killed in crash, 3 injured

Published: May 5, 2014 4:00AM

ASHLAND -- An Ohio college campus is mourning the loss of a student killed in a weekend car crash.

Three other Ashland University students were hospitalized in serious condition after their car went through a stop sign and was struck by a pickup truck in Wellington, in northeast Ohio. The Ohio State Highway Patrol said Andrew Keim, of Millersburg, died Saturday at MetroHealth Medical Center after the Friday evening accident. Three other students were hospitalized after being flown to the Cleveland hospital.

"He was one of the most giving students at Ashland," Sue Heimann, the dean of students, said Sunday. She said Keim, a junior, had helped raise funds for cancer research and gave blood to the Red Cross.

Keim's twin sister Ashley spoke at a Saturday evening prayer service on campus and informed the audience that her brother had died of his injuries.

She said he was a giving person in life who would continue to be so as an organ donor. She is also a student at Ashland.

Troopers said Keim was riding in the back seat of a four-door car driven by 20-year-old Madalyn Humphrey, of Elkins, West Virginia. She was listed in serious condition Sunday morning, along with passengers Paige Gorsuch, 21, of Wauseon, and Rosalie Sepesy, 21, of Austintown.

The driver of the pickup truck, Mark Zacharias, 56, of Wellington, was hospitalized in fair condition while Elizabeth Zacharias, 55, had been released from the hospital after treatment. Heimann said they are the parents of a sophomore student at the school.

Grief counselors and spiritual support staff will be available to students, and the school chapel will be open, Heimann said. The school of some 2,200 undergrads, about midway between Columbus and Cleveland near Interstate 71, is completing finals this week.

"We'll be in mourning," Heimann said. "We have a strong community of faith, and we're going to pull together."

Heimann said Keim participated in a regular religious service. He was also a manager at a fast-food restaurant, she said.

FM radio station WRDL in Ashland said Keim had been a show host for three semesters, going by "APK." The station said on social media Saturday night that it planned to air clips of him this week